I was able to reconnect with Jim Rogers this morning out of Spain, legendary co-founder of the Quantum Fund with George Soros, author of Hot Commodities, and chairman of the private Beeland Holdings.

It was an especially powerful interview, as Jim spoke towards the relentless downward pressure on gold, the upward explosion in interest rates, central bank money printing, and how to protect yourself ahead of the disastrous times he sees coming.

When asked if we’re seeing forced liquidation leading the smash down in gold this morning, Jim said,

“We certainly are. There are a lot of leveraged players who are now being forced to sell. Usually when you have this kind of forced liquidation, you’re getting closer to a bottom, maybe not the final bottom, but certainly close to a bottom. I even bought a little bit [today].”

With regard to the intense bearish news stories being published on gold, Jim suggested investors shouldn’t ”Pay [much] attention to other people. I pay attention to what’s going on... Obviously with gold collapsing I know about that - but I don’t listen to other people.”

Over the last few years Jim has spoken extensively on shorting government bonds, and more recently, the 10-year U.S. treasury yield has rocketed higher (with a corresponding collapse in value). When asked if now is a good time to be covering those short bond positions, he explained that,

“I’m grappling with that question as we speak... I’m not short government bonds, [but rather] I’m short junk bonds on the theory that they will suffer the most when the bond market finally breaks. The junk bonds will go first, [along with] emerging market bonds. So I’m trying to figure out what to do, but I am not covering my shorts [just yet].”

Commenting on the Fed’s historical ability to control the bond market, Jim said,

“We’re getting to that point where either one of two things are going to happen; either central banks are going to stop all this [money printing], or the market is going to force them to stop it. It looks like we may be having a juncture of both... where the Fed is getting worried... and at the same time, the market is jumping in and saying, ‘Yes, it’s insane what you’re doing, and this has to end.’ So we may have a healthy convergence of both. And if it’s not ending now, it’s going to end sometime in the next year, because this cannot go on - it’s too insane.”

When asked about the explosive riots occurring in Brazil, Jim warned to prepare for much more, in that,

“This is the first time in history where you’ve had all the central banks in the world printing money at the same time. Europe, Japan, America, and the UK, all, are frantically trying to debase their currencies…I’m afraid that in the end, we’re all going to suffer perhaps, worse then we ever have, with inflation, currency turmoil, and higher interest rates. As I say, this has never happened before, it’s never been a good policy in the long run, so I’m afraid we’re all going to suffer for the rest of this decade from this crazy, crazy money printing.”

As a final comment to investors looking to protect themselves from these impending disasters, Jim said,

“The way to protect yourself is to own real assets... because that’s the only thing which will protect you as currencies debase.”

“If you have money in the financial system and the financial system collapses,” he added, “even though you may have done nothing wrong - you may suffer because somebody else did something wrong. So you need to be very careful about where your assets are in the financial system, or have strict control over them yourself, so that you’re not going to lose them.”

All you can do is try to warn them. Most aren't going to do anything but some will. With the whole world on a paper system we certainly are in store for something that has never before been seen and it won't be good. The financial markets and your portfolio will be the least of your concerns. tinyurl.com/pp588mj

Most of my family members just say "my Social Security and Medicare were PROMISED to me!" (Lotta old-heads in the family.) Oh, boy. Check, please!

Then I talk to the ones who are my age or younger. They readily offer comments like "yeah, we're definitely screwed. Just playing the game while it can be played."

Not that they have been making extensive preparations, but they know the old game is drawing to a close. Nobody knows what to do about it, really. I THINK I know (prepare as best as possible) but in all honesty, how it goes down is likely to hit all of us from left field. Some direction we're not looking.

Like the underground monsters in the old movie "Tremors." The "prepper" in the movie (Gerald McRaney) has a CLASSIC line: "Underground. Dammit, I never thought of that!"

Just be ready for the new game. Read When Money Dies and note that people would trade real stuff for rapidly devaluing cash, since they still had faith in cash. Hoard a pile of paper now and trade it for their stuff (gold, ammo, liquor) when they panic. Then you can use that stuff to barter for food and land later. If it gets to the next stage, where all that matters is the use of force, be prepared to go rogue - become a pirate or a warlord! At that point, all bets are off - civilization is a thin veneer on human nature. That will be the true race to the bottom. As Hobbes said, life in the state of nature is nasty, brutish, and short.

Three articles illustrate this point: “If a lord has destroyed the eye of a member of the aristocracy, they shall destroy his eye.”

But: “If a lord has destroyed the eye of a lord's slave or broke the bone of a lord's slave, he shall pay one-half his value.” And: “If a builder has constructed a house for a man but has not made his work strong with the result that the house which he built collapsed and so caused the death of the owner of the house, that builder shall be put to death.

If it caused the death of the son of the owner of the house, they shall put to death the son of the builder.”

Man did not spend 1000s of years creating a civilized society only to find bankers rip it out from under them. Do not underestimate the need for the human spirit to need to be free. If there is no escape vessel from oppression, some distant place to dream of, man will have no reason to go on. Then, the above happens. Be Warned.

Shit, you guys are making me think I need to ammo up some more. I've already got tens of thousands of rounds in the usual calibers, plus enough of the odd stuff for my odd guns, but that is all just for play. We bought a farm that can make us self-sufficient, have it as a bit of a fortress, and have it hidden. But if the free shit army zombies come our way, well....

Hoard a pile of paper now and trade it for their stuff (gold, ammo, liquor) when they panic.

That is not what I got from reading it (When Money Dies) at all, and it sits on my bookshelf across from me. When the dollar repudiation goes exponential, you will have very little time to convert out as everyone else will be looking to do the same. Germans weren't scrambling for papiermarks, they were looking for American dollars (the famous Hemingway anecdote), finally resorting to burning them. Point two is, you think your advice would hold in the Internet age anyhow? This level of information was obviously not available to the Weimar citizens. If you aren't converting your fiat to assets now, then it is you who will be scrambling and good luck getting gold or ammo from a wiser person.

I've heard the same "promised to me" argument. I tell them that the amount was promised but what you can buy with it is not guaranteed. In other words, you will still get your check from the government, but good luck living off of it.

"speaking to you live from some hell hole in Spain"..."no, really think Spain's unemployment will rocket to 70 percent here unleashing a whirlwind of economic activity and causing demand to soar. that's why i think you should lever up 1 billion to one on copper mines, steel mills, corn tacos and Wild Turkey." i mean this guy has gotten KILLED. i feel sorry for the people who followed him to Mt. Doom. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7X1BCCH9a8

'That backround bathroom echo is a dead giveway.' ... no. Jim Rogers said himself that he does all his interviews while on his exercise bicycle. if you notice, he always sounds winded during his interviews & podcasts because he is on a stationary exercise bike. he said that himself in one of his interviews. (personally, i think that is rude trying to exercise while being interviewed & not giving the interviewer his full attention, but, that's what he does.)

There is collusion, but not at the central bank level ... the central banks are printing because governments haven't been taxing.

Overpopulation and the reliance on free international trade has caused a race to the bottom on taxation ... the government outlays of course did not follow immediately, because governments needed to keep pretending that free trade raised all boats.

In the end though free trade will sink all boats except for TPTB ... all they need now is scapegoats to distract us from that and settle us into our new peon existences and maybe thin the herd a bit.

correct on over-population, incorrect on collusion. Look at how the price of gold, silver, oil moves together in all currencies and you can see this requires a massive push in the same direction at the same minute for each central bank.I have seen it many times. I screen-grabbed one from when the swiss "soft" pegged CHF to EUR. Same deal as ever.http://flic.kr/p/ajNeX8http://flic.kr/p/bm3HdM

You will ... as the mining income drops the structural destruction of the tax base which was made in the last decade will make for some ugly deficits in the next few years. Given the real estate situation in Australia the interest rates still have to be kept low though ... so what's the solution? Print ...

We'll all suffer more than we ever have because unlike in the past, there is no place to run to, no nation that isn't participating in this madness.

Well, perhaps for a tiny, volcano dotted one in the North Atlantic. Given their immense energy resources, that might not be too bad of a place to run to, so long as you can deal with eating fish and mutton 600 times a year.

watch the wind patterns over that ocean. It's probably safe (North Sea). Much safer still is the Atlantic in the Southern Hemisphere. The oceanic currents tend also not to bring heavy stuff across the equator to the Southern Hemisphere in the Pacific.

jimmy throws out a bit of a contradiction there......he is saying that printing is coming to an end either through self control or through the markets.........yet says that real assets are the place to be due to future inflation???????....sorry, but if they stop printing (which i have been saying here for a very long time-that ben will not print to confetti), then its game over....its the mother of all deflationary monsters....which is what i fear......not following jimmy on this one.....

Does it matter? Pick your 'flation. The outcome is the same regardless.

I wonder if interaction between different groups will interrupt the process. The gradual, incremental and far-reaching agenda to bypass the Anglo-American standard FOR EVERYTHING will reduce and eventually undermine confidence, at which point it will not matter whether the Fed is printing or not. That's why we're seeing rumours of bifurcation, with one USD mandated for strict use domestically even as the rest of the world dishoards the international counterpart. What will you or your government or other organization hold when the walls go up? What will the people on the other side be willing to accept? The answer can't vary between each and every trading partner, surely. What resources can you bring to the table that would make you a welcome candidate in this or that fledgling monetary fraternity? Can you work well as part of a team? Can you get along well with others? How do you deal with conflict in the workplace? Do you like pets?

Rogers is correct because even if Benny quits printing, it will still cause inflation in the items we need to live -- food, gas, electricity. However, The Bernack will not be able to pull out the plus 300% of M2 money supply without making things even worse. So we will have inflation continuing..........which is what we have been in anyway. Deflation of the things we desire -- home - cars - etc with inflation in the things we need food - clothing - gas - electricity.

Only reason there has not been MORE inflation, like Wymar Republic, is because the banks give the money back to the FED to hold while getting interest on it??????? So not much has been put into circulation. Benny stops printing, banks will need cash stored with FED........and there you go, INFLATION!!!!

Yes, and then what happens? Bond market implodes along with the banking system. Tax receipts will collapse and the deficit will explode. The world will awaken to insolvency in the USA and start dumping bonds and FRNs as quick as they can. Surely you don't think that you'll just be able to cash out of your stock gains and buy more stuff with your rapidly appreciating FRNs in the middle of a debt implosion. USD is a bubble because the asset which backs it, debt, has the FED inflating it. You don't make it stronger by removing the artificial market that is the FED. Yes there are Americans that will be scrounging for USD to pay off debts but foreigners don't have this problem and they hold 60% of the USDenominated financial assets including over $13 trillion in the US stock market.

he seems to contradict....but not really. if the .fed stops printing, deflation occurs. well, you are going to need your 'real assets' aka land, means of production, etc just to survive. if the .fed doesn't stop printing, then your real assets land, PMs, means of production will retain their intrinsic value. pretty simple logic.

what you're not following is that you can't print a currency that doesn't exist anymore.
Currency collapse is not deflationary. Prices will be very high but out of necessity. They just won't be in dollars. people have no choice in this.

really? what's that? "a billion dollar margin call on their gold"? Chairman Bernanke says thank you if that's the case. i mean these clowns have missed the whole equity rally...and only now are they realizing the only support for their "genius" is that which they spent their whole life mocking? phucking frauds...everyone of them...if you ask me. we could get a massive market collapse of course...but this helps commodities how again? every economy on the planet has collapsed or is about to. the only one left is the USA. MAYBE Germany. MAYBE. and that's EMPIRICALLY true. "just read the newspapers." these guys are in love with nothing other than total bullshit.

No, they have said the Fed and other CBs will print, print and print some more. Have they been wrong?

The inflation that they are predicting will come, as it always does. You make the fatal error of believing this time is different because of normalcy bias. Things look fine at the moment yet the conditions of this normalcy are anything but.

We have massive amounts of currency printed and being printed but no real visible inflation so you beleive everyone who predicts it is a fool. In the history of major inflationary collapses everything looks fine until it isn't and everything we have seen in the past that has led to major inflationary episodes is in place today, only on a larger scale.

There is an old adage that says insurance is the one thing you cannot buy when you need it. Real assets are in effect insurance. When you need them no one will sell them to you for your paper.

I think what good old jimmy is trying to tell us by this.....is that the market will force intrest rates to rise, no matter what amount they print. See argentina, zimbabwe and all other countries that do not have a reservecurrencie of their own. Like the West will find out soon enough.

So will it be wise to buy agriculture throug futeres or by RICI rbs agriculture or commodities ? I mean do you have control over them in times pf turmoil ( like jim was saying in the interview) ,or do normal folks like me just sit still while being shaved, emigrate to latin america , as china is not an option, stack silver and canned food ( lead is not allowede in the EUSSR) or do what ?????
Pray ..... I hear anybody say....... Shit .... I am an atheist...... Other solution ?

It doesn't take a lot of guts to short HY, a move, I might add, that your average 401Ker cannot make. I know you are long gold but Rogers has been tooting that long commodities and short bonds bugle for a long time. Frankly I think he is tone deaf.

It's not that I am long gold. I am just short the system. I saw sudden debt getting upset about this last night. I think he plunked down a lot of money without realizing the enormity of what he was actually placing his chips on. I have other chips placed. But I don't stand there and tally my wins/losses up with regard to that particular investment. Jim Rogers is standing in the end zone. He can afford to. Most others are going to get gang tackled on the way. I will wait as long as it takes, and it may take longer than I am around. That's fine.

Unless you are very rich, diversification seems to be best. Because all of this decline of our financial system has taken soooo long, well, if you have PMs and other assets (including much-hated FIAT$), you will wind up being much better off than most if/when something really bad happens.

You are not a lone in your thinking my friend. This very,very temporary blip in asset prices will continue down the deflation path shortly. The fast money from the forced liquidation of all assets is over. The attempt to profit from the past is dead. Even the hedge funds have stopped buying real estate. Now we shall see if companies follow stopping the purchase of their own stocks. Borrowing to support their shares will in the end force their liquidation also.

debt free is a must, like reading and writtting. How many well written folks on here with unpayable debt. "if " the system cracks you will not have to pay your debts, Borrowers will be somewhat pardonned.

Tend to agree, but it seems one gets rich with concentrated holdings and stays rich with more diversified holdings.

If you have achieved a level of wealth (debt free with >$3 million assets?), today I would not argue with having a fair amount of cash (30%) and a fair amount of gold/silver (20%) in addition to select plays in stocks (long and short), bonds, and other real assets.

you obviously missed the parts where Rogers said commodities & gold in particular have had a record 12 years and needed a break, needed to correct and that he felt this was healthy. Frequently then he said he wasn't selling gold and he owned it (and silver). Recently he's said he bought a little. And he always said he hopes he's smart enough to buy more when it goes down. It's down. There ya go.

Jim Rogers was correct. "In 2013 his market would go to shit." this is the biggest collapse in gold prices in history. silver is even worse. glad to hear interest rates are higher just as he predicted!

We are all suffering from money printing. We are living in a depression disguised as prosperity.Real estate is the benchmark:I just returned from Southern Vermont today, where I have a second home. Two kinds of property are selling:those on the bottom rung and those on the top. The rest of the market is "no bid". The bottom rung property - good location and offered in 2005 for $125,000 - sold last week for $50,000, with the seller taking a $40,000, 15 year mortgage bearing 4%. A tiny number of high end properties are getting sold. Properties that cost $1.5 million to build in 2005 are offered at $950,000 with no bid. I have followed these markets closely for more than 15 years - the number of offerings is numbing - the prices are distress.Here in northern New Jersey, houses in top communities are selling, but at 2002 prices. And, the only properties moving are those in the best of repair and maintenance - move in ready - just change out the wallpaper and paint.My daughter sells real estate in Nirvana, a place within 10 miles of the While House. Her customers are couples working high end government jobs. They can assemble W-2s totaling more than $300,000. But alas, these folks have hardly any downpayment. The military gets special loans.Stop printing money - then, all of us will be passengers on the dying rig in the Grapes of Wrath. Keep printing money - then, paper money will die (reinvented or not).Don't applaud - all of you bullion holders like me - there will be no joy in any of this. We are all in survival mode.

the last 2 months there have been for-sale signs popping up like crazy in my far-out Chi burb- I think people are believing the MSMs line of "recovery" BS but all they are doing is driving down prices even more by glutting the market. They are throwing up new tract shitbox homes like crazy for $300k+( in IL????) but the banks are only writing loans for new and then dumping those 3% down mortgages in the govt's lap.

Otto I feel like I am going insane. I take my dog for walks all over. I can't tell you how many little cape's keep getting knocked down and get replaced by McMansions. Restaurants packed, malls packed, Home depot etc. packed. Less for sale. I sit back sometimes and wonder what the f I am thinking.

Fonz, I hear what you are saying but I think you are exposing yourself to your comfort zone. I agree with you about the "state of the 'burbs," but this is not the real economy or a reflection of the state of 'Merika. It is something totally different.

"new bubbles in new areas" but that's it. i've been to NOVA. the houses that were the big bubble places in the 80's have all gentrified. there are no new buyers. Maryland i hear is good...but the idea that "we're going gangbusters here!" has always been a complete and total falsehood...save for California and Manhattan. you can reinflate a bubble...but you can't keep it that way. eventually someone must purchase said item. if i had a clue "hoo" that went out the door these past six weeks. gold and silver getting hammered is the first shot over the bow of ANY leverage. for ANYTHING. "In God We Trust" here we come.

People are sheep. They only want and buy what they think everyone else wants. Our govenment has been doing a sell job on us for years. Our whole economy is based on marketing to induce to buy everything from ding dongs to stocks. The interest rates and home sales number bump up and everyone want to BTFD. We have been watching it in the stock markets because there is an implied backstop. Its finally sinking in that housing now has a backstop. Of course none of these backstops are real in a sustainable sense, but who cares, as we are all eventually dead, right? We've all been reading the stories about people living in their house for years without payments and the mortgage markets have finally loosened to allow these loans to happen again. Its ON again and will run up until another crash, probably sooner than later. Greed is in play again but disaster is still fresh in our memories so it shouldn't take much to bring all back down again.

I have a problem with the term "assets". I get the impression that most are thinking stocks when they say assets, but i don't think of anything made of paper or digits as an asset. Even gold presents issues for me as an asset as it doesn't do anything. Admittedly I'm biased as I build things for a living, but for me an asset is something that has useful value. Machinery, materials, land or structures. If we are forced to invest in fiat, it seems to me we are voluntarily tying ourselves to a market that many of us have no control or influence over. Why don't I hear more talk about real assets rather than this crap that bankers and government invented to control us?

You don't hear that much about real assetts because they usually don't hold their value in the long term (PMs are the exception). The price of real assetts only goes up in an inflationary environment. Rogers says that the Bernanke will be forced to stop printing but we should put our wealth in real assetts. Those two things together make for bad advice. If all the CBs stop printing, deflation will lower the price of real assetts and cash will be king if you can keep it. When will it all come apart? I can only guess, but my thought is by the second quarter of 2015. Thats not to say some things won't get worse before then. I sold all my GLD and gold miners this week on Monday. That shows you that I don't have a crystal ball but Monday was better than Friday. I am still stacking, even though it's a modest stack.

But your reference to "price" infers value based on exchange and not on utility. If we persist in valuing everything in the terms the bankers prefer are we not at a significant disadvantage? People used to buy a home and live in it for their whole lives. They "invested" in their homes as they needed and desired and seldom looked at its impact on resale value. We have now allowed everything to become absolutely commoditized and nothing seems to have "value" beyond the dollar. We have now allowed our very existence to be commoditized by "healthcare" and now Obamacare. The government's intrusion into healthcare will require valuations to be put on each of our lives, based on age, education, earning potential and ultimately social value, much as they are trying to do with imminent domain, where the value of property is appraised on its potential revenue impact to the government. How much is a life worth? How much is yours worth? I hate everything about what has been created as it has destroyed what it means to be human. We are simply spread sheet data and statistics to be used and manipulated.

Holy crap. I must have been sleeping on every thread you posted because this is distilled genius.

I struggle to see ObamaCare as either pure lobby victory or a simple step towards confiscating the accumulated wealth of the "silver pelts" in society. Even though, as a professional engineer, I visited the doctor for annual physicals just a month ago only to be in raw SHOCK at the price. My wife and I have decided to pursue some reccomended procedures in a foreign country simply due to COST. And we have insurance.

Costs in the US have to come down, if they don't, it will just be a confiscatory policy moving wealth from the old to someone else.

As an aside, I often comment that CO2 regulation is regulating life, being as we all emit CO2 as a basic life function.

I had extensive cosmetic dentistry done in Mexico. Crowns were $187 each. I could have bought the cheaper but I opted for the best quality I could get.

I just broke a tooth here (I need to train myself to stop eating like a starving coyote). Root canal, crown lengthening, crown, $3,500. The crown alone was $1,500, eight times the cost in Mexico. I was planning on going back to Mexico for the procedute but it would have required two trips and I couldn't swing that. I will be going back in the fall to get the wife two crowns, glasses for both of us, and shrimp tacos and beer. I'm not into whores, but the local ladies were awfully tempting.

I shitcanned my medical insurance a couple of years ago. I have two plans for survival, get major medical here and file for bankrupcy, or go to Mexico and get it done. I find it repugnant to be forced into pre-considering bankruptcy, but they designed the game. You can not get fair pricing without an insurance company as a go between. If you don't have insurance you pay many multiples of what the insurance company would be charged for the same procedure. Our medical establishment is criminal.

I will say, in defense of the dentists, although the pricing is insane, more than $1,000 per hour, they are highly proficient.

Obamacare is control - your health and thus your life in the hands of the statists.

NSA too is control - all your info in the hands of the statists, who will soon enough not hesitate to use it against you and to control you. The knowledge that the Gubmint spys on us already impacts/controls behavior

Whatwe have is a conversion from a productivity based economy to a specualtion based economy. People used to store wealth in those things that gave them security and they placed value in. Real things that included but were not specific to money. It may have been land or other property, a business or just food stocks and a close knit family and communuity that did it. Now it is money that is owned and printed by government.

that was still speculation. Not all tangible assets retain their value, those values change based on innovative abilities & seasonal problems or multi-year cycles of need, divergence, etc., change value. Even with no fiat currencies speculation is required to be a good investor.

why should I hold more copper than lumber? Why should I grow more tomato and less asparagus? The market will know & I must figure it out to prosper.

indeed. It's part of a larger pattern of commoditizing the slavery of the world. If you want to really barf look up "venus project" or "zeitgeist" - it proposes the same thing. Essentially a world bank with no law, no democracy, no rights, no property and while restricting everything they call it "abundance". While denying all property they dare call this freedom. While denying all trade by denying all ownership they dare call it a "resource based economy" aka RBE even though there's no economy to speak of because it's all centrally controlled, planet-wide. Shameful & disgusting.

What's really entertaining is when you call out its supporters on how they're going to take our property away to make it theirs, aka "common global heritage".Like a rapist declaring rape doesn't exist because women have no rights to deny sex, they declare "you can't own property, it was never yours, therefore it is not stealing".And that's why we have guns.

I own a retail business (in the building industry no less) and as much as it sucks working retail, we earned a 12.5% ROI last year in a continually crappy environment. I think this is what he means by an asset. When high inflation forces us all to be speculators, owning any business will give a critical advantage.

Junk 'DNA' alert?! http://www.mythofjunkdna.com/ ,...and so, as Pi is unsolvable to rationalize... is not the 'God Gene' hidden away on an island of a 'junk treasure trove', as visable as... "not-seeing-the forest-for-the-trees"?